News Of The Day 11/23/2011

Layoffs, changes in game subscriptions, and much, much more. This holiday week is getting interesting . . .

Culture:
An interesting thought: consumers know more than salespeople and that changes shopping among other things. THat's a pretty good point and one I hadn't considered.

Mobile:
Nokia Siemens to cut 17,000 people over the next year or so. I can't say I'm surprised, but damn. Keep an eye on both of the parent companies as well as this company if you dare try and work for any of them.

Publishing:
Tablet magazine provider Ziro raises $20 million. They've got good partners in the industry. Oh, and they have $20 million dollars, so send them a resume.

Social Media:
GroupOn stock is falling and no I'm not surprised, yes I did warn you, etc. Let's see if this kills enthusiasm for other IPOs – because it may.

Technology:
Microsoft signs a non-disclosure agreement to get more info on Yahoo. In short, this is the usual examine-stuff-for-possible-bid. This will surprise no one of course, but it could result in the seismic, if not unexpected, acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft. That'd be a hell of a game-changer (even if we overuse that word). I'd also

Video:
You Tube rolls out Disney content and starts its rentals. So it begins.

Video Games . . . and Stuff:
A game to train people in Microsoft Office that mocks the much-maligned Clippy by making him a character. I'm all for ramification, and this may give you some good ideas, but also this is seriously meta. Presented for an interesting idea.

Big Fish is trying a subscription service for iPad. That's an interesting idea and one I'm going to watch to see how it goes. Odd thought though, could this subscription idea catch on . . . and then like MMO's turn out to work better going back to free?

GameStop gets in on carrying the ASUS Transformer Prime? Apparently so – and that looks like an obvious move for Gamestop – to start selling game-worthy devices. Plus it's ASUS, which I have a geek-crush on, so I see this as a good fusion. Now what does that mean for GameStop's future evolution? Well, that's a good question . . .

Must Read: The Careers of Classic Game Developers.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:What other technology should GameStop carry?

Steven Savage